China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ Initiative to boost the global economy through international trade links by land and sea is an attempt to replicate the effect of the original Silk Road by creating two trade-routes: One by Sea, and the other by Land. Known as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Silk Road Economic Belt respectively, the routes will cover over 60 countries from Asia to Europe, going through South East, South, West, and Central Asia, along with the Middle East.

The OBOR Initiative aims to develop links between these countries and billions of dollars worth of investments into developing infrastructure including railways, ports, and power grids. The OBOR Initiative plans to boost the GDP Growth contribution from these regions to 80 percent by 2025, while pushing more than 3 billion people of the population into the middle class.

(SOURCE: ‘The Belt and Road Initiative: Reshaping the global value chain’ report, jointly written by the ACCA and SSE)

South East Asia sits where the land and sea route meet, creating opportunities for the region. During the Beijing Bridge Road Forum held in May last year, 9 Memorandums of Understanding and agreements boasting RM31.26 billion were made between Chinese and Malaysian companies as a result of China stepping up its investments for infrastructure and imports for Malaysia. The Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, believes that the OBOR Initiative will yield massive benefits to Malaysia in terms of business opportunities, higher living standards, and better infrastructure.

The upcoming EnRoute Private Capital Meeting in Kuala Lumpur will be discussing opportunities in the SEA Market, where speakers will be talking about this initiative by the Chinese. If you happen to be in Kuala Lumpur on 28 March 2018, be sure to attend the meeting to understand how industry leaders perceive this. Other topics that will be discussed at the meeting include what Artificial Intelligence will do for investments and Family Offices’ allocations into private investments. Click here to find out more about the event.